Voters drop 'Plantations' from Rhode Island's little-known official name

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – It’s called Rhode Island now. Just Rhode Island.

Riding a national wave of awareness about racial injustice, Rhode Island voters on Tuesday approved shortening the state’s official name and lopping off the centuries-old phrase  “and Providence Plantations” that supporters said held connotations of slavery.

Officially, Rhode Island was incorporated as The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations when it declared statehood in 1790.

The vote was close, and for most of Tuesday evening it appeared the measure had failed.

“I think Rhode Island has turned a page,” said state Rep. Anastasia Williams, who had helped draw attention to the question – and to Rhode Island’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. “It means Rhode Islanders have joined forces and embraced the fact that we are, one. Period.”

Richard Lee, a retired special-education director from Jamestown, and other opponents of the measure had argued the word “plantation” had no association with slavery when Roger Williams settled Providence in 1636. Then, the word referred only to a tract of land, or a farm. They argued “Providence Plantations” was history worth preserving.

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Dozens of people polled across the state Tuesday gave various reasons for why they supported or opposed the measure.

Some supported it not because it meant much to them personally, they said, but because it offended other Rhode Islanders. Others favored the name change, they said, because in this moment of racial reckoning it was time for Rhode Island to rid itself of a term imbued with racial subjugation.

The push for the name change had some big supporters.

Gov. Gina Raimondo and General Assembly leaders all struck the word "plantations" from their official documents this summer, as did Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza. Raimondo said the word was associated with “the ugliest institution” in the nation’s history.

Brother Gary Dantzler, a leader in the Rhode Island Black Lives Matter movement,  expressed gratitude that so many Rhode Islanders had rallied around their Black neighbors.

“It’s almost soulful,” he said. “It makes me feel good and very grateful that people are paying attention and really staying focused, to say, ‘Let me think of helping someone as a collective group.’”

“I’m very impressed. It’s monumental to us as African Americans,” Dantzler said. “Rhode Island is changing. Hugely. It makes me feel great that there is room for change.”

Contributing: Brown University journalism students Liv Simmons, Olivia George, Kayla Guo and Aida Sherif; The Associated Press